Is he back to stay or just passing thru?

Chris Roberts
spending quality time on Saturday with HBPA President Steve Smith

Saturday
saw the return to the Park of ex Northlands Racing Manager/Executive VP – Chris Roberts.We were not sure if his return after about a
one year absence was business or pleasure – maybe word of Northlands’ stated
departure from the racing business had not reached Canada’s ocean playground
(Halifax, Nova Scotia) and he was exploring what the chances were of getting
his old post back?No such luck – fresh
from his annual house boating sojourn in the Shuswap he took the long way back
home and checked in on his friends and colleagues he fostered during the 4 year
tenure at Northlands.He first sought
out HBPA Manager Mat Monaco and recounted
for those within listening distance that Monaco had told industry insiders that
his hiring by Richard from San Diego was “the
second worst thing that ever happened to the HBPA”.Roberts would go on to say that he really didn’t
understand what that meant but took it as a complement.He further stated that business relations
with the HBPA were tough but fair irrespective of the fact that the HBPA continually
preached that they were no strangers to litigation. There is no question that
Roberts is a great young mind when it comes to racetrack management, it’s too bad
that the casino business beckoned his return. He also made it known to his
gathering that he took some vocabulary test on Facebook and his score suggested
he was in the top 0.16% of all who took the test or maybe of everyone
on the planet. He advised “I view this
result with torpor”.I wonder if
anyone knows what this means exactly?

Saturday’s Stake Action

Before
we get down to the detail, there were great crowds on the weekend at
Northlands.We are still not sure if the
young patrons who are attending the races these days all decked out in fancy
attire are there for the racing or it’s the in place to socialize and be seen.Now that we have these folks here we need to
get them engaged in the wagering aspect of the sport.Make no mistake, the newbies are welcomed as
they appear to be having a great time and certainly add color to the
surroundings!

Six
stakes were offered on Saturday with total purses of $300,000.With the exception of the Count Lathum for 3 year olds prepping for the Canadian Derby and
the Fred Jones for older males, the
field sizes were disappointing.Seems
like it’s way too early to run 2 year old stakes races on July 16 as witnessed
by the fact that a field of five 2 year olds fillies in the Princess Margret scratched down to 3
runners.The Canadian Juvenile for two
year old colts had six entries with only 5 runners going to the gate. The
stakes schedule was compromised this year when it looked like racing at
Northlands would end on August 20 resulting in jamming the stakes program into
a tighter window.

Horses
trained by Greg Tracy won four (4)
of the Stake races winning by a combined wow factor of 30 lengths. Three of the
winners (Onestartatatime, Ruffenuff and
Fall At Last) are owned by the partnership of HBPA Directors DonDanard and Curtis Landry.The
$95,000 earned on Saturday will make a big dent in recapturing the $103,953 US investment
in this bloodstock. Fall At Last looks
like he’s the real deal as it would appear that there won’t be many 2 year olds
colts around here can match his fractions of 22.1; 44.3 and getting the 6
furlongs in 1.11.2.He again demolished
the field by over 12 lengths.Indications
are that this horse can be purchased but the price just went up from the initial
offers received.

Real Intaglio owned by Robbin Martens stamped himself as the local Canadian Derby favorite
by running down a relatively competitive field of three year olds in the mile
and 1/16 Count Lathum.His pedigree and running
style is such that he should get the 1 3/8 mile Canadian Derby distance. One
will expect a number of outsiders shipping in for the Derby which will be run
on August 20.

Our
view that Blue Dancer is the best
older horse in training was reaffirmed on Saturday when he went wire to wire in
the 1 mile and 1/16 Fred Jones Stakes and again defeated reigning horse of the
year Killin Me Smalls by margin of just under 3 lengths.The rest of the field was not even
close.To get a feel as to how good this
horse is right now, his 1.44 time for the distance was over 2 seconds (10 lengths)
faster than Real Intaglio’s winning time in the Count Lathum.

Leftovers

We
were thinking of maybe taking a page out of the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede’s
playbook and not report wagering stats this week since they were not as good as
last year.For years you could not go anywhere
in the media without the Stampede attendance figures being reported a multitude
of times and places on a daily basis.This year not much if anything, thus for 2016 we expect those numbers are
down. Forgetting the aforementioned, the
wagering statistics for the first thirty-one
(31) days of the Northlands thoroughbred meet total $8,091,232 compared to $8,700,697 for a decrease of $609,465 (7%). Since this corner does
not believe in making excuses that are beyond anyone’s control like the weather
and economy, we feel that the small field sizes is the primary factor in the
decrease in business.This phenomena is
not restricted to Northlands - it appears to be a factor in all jurisdictions
which means that the reduction of annual foal crops which in recent years have
been running at about half of what they used to be is problematic.

Besides
winning stake races this weekend, Curtis
Landry was busy hosting the many members of the Alberta Thoroughbred Racing Club who were in attendance watching 2
of their charges perform.The 2 year old
Krissy Fortynine who debuted in the third
race on Friday ran a respectable 5th for a first time starter.On Saturday the initial Club winner Streekin Discreet just got nipped at
the wire after leading every step of the way. It is refreshing to see the many
neophytes being enthusiastic and having fun in what is for the majority their
introduction to the industry.

They
say all good things must come to an end as is the case with the free racing
program downloads that were available on the Northlands website.Equibase
has the proprietary rights to the past performance charts appearing in the
Program and will no longer allow sharing of the information without paying a
price.Efforts by Northlands, HBPA, and
HRA to arrive at an accommodation proved fruitless. Northlands continues to
look for alternatives.

Finally,
this sounds like a broken record but the High 5 wager again was not taken down
by a single winner thus the carryover pool going into Wednesday, July 20 Race 8 is $123,842.If not tagged by a single ticket the entire pool
will have to be ultimately paid out by the end of the meet.

Copyright 2011 The Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association of Alberta